RAF Coningsby, 8th May 2025. BBMF DOING FLY PASTS FOR VE DAY

A few years ago his crew, there was four of them left, went to East Kirby, did the taxi run and they treated him like royalty because they were the last four-man crew that was left alive, you know. I mean, one in four life expectancy if you're in that position, you know, yeah. We've been in there, you know, even though modern day you're on Intercom and you're listening to the rest of the crew and stuff, when you're in there and you close the blast doors behind you, it's the most isolated place on this aircraft that you can be even though you're on Intercom. Wow. So if you want a true sense of what it's like to be on board one of these things. I've been in one of these Kirby, sat in the back there, obviously not when the taxi run happened. It's snug as well, isn't it? Yeah, really stuffy and climbing over the beams in there isn't that some type of... But I mean, if you're in a tail, you couldn't wear a parachute if it was that tight, that's why the parachute was mounted on the side wall beyond the two sets of blast doors. So if you imagine it like that aircraft spiralling, trying to avoid corkscrews, whether it's on fire, you know, what they've got to do is realign the turret to where it is now. Hopefully the hydraulics are working, which would do that. If the hydraulics weren't working, they'd have to hand-wheel it round back into position, open the doors, lean back, grab the parachute from the side, clip it on, back in, wind it back round to 90 degrees out, don't close the doors, because this time you're just going to fall straight back out. And that's why they only had one in four life expectancy in the tail. He never talked about it much. No. Not a lot. Only in later life he did talk about it. With visits here, you know, it's an event that's come up, families have stood next to him, he only just found out that what they did during the war, for example, because for some of them it was only five years of their life. And actually the stories that they have, more of the stories are of what they did afterwards, whether it went teacher, bin man, postman, Pickford's removal van, you know. George's gun, he's only found mosquitoes. He's got quite a lot of stories about when he was a removal's pam. But some don't talk about it. There was a gentleman I showed round about seven or eight years ago now, and his family were literally only just found out. And we showed him round, took him on board the aircraft, et cetera, and some of the stories that had come out with, you know, it won't tell the families, but whether it's because they're in the company of wearing this again or, you know, around that environment and atmosphere, it suddenly all comes out. It's stuff that we will never repeat. That's right. Absolutely. Thank God. Airbus A330, QNH 10022, stand clear. QNH 10022, stand clear, Manchester 93. Airbus A330, I know when you are up. Airbus A330, copy, Manchester 93.